[CQ-Contest] Uh, well......

Well, I certainly did get a lot of email, pro and con
about the TO5T messages I posted to the Internet over
the weekend. Especially after the 'burnt to a crisp'
message I posted on Monday. How anyone could have the
huevos grandes to sign their names to email messages
defending cheating is somewhat beyond my
comprehension.
My significant other and I had a telling conversation
about the issue of cheating in contesting on Tuesday
night. While she is all too aware that I am rabid
about contesting, in the 7 years we've been together I
never really had discussed some of the nuances of the
sport with her before.
Mary: "You mean, you've been doing this for years and
years, and you've spent all that money, taken all
those trips, invested a huge amount of your free time
not only in operating radio contests but in building
stations, being involved with radio contest clubs and
talking about contesting every day on the Internet?"
Me: "Yeah."
Mary: "And you've told me about people that have even
gone to the length of buying and building contest
stations in foreign countries to compete, who have
invested an even more insane amount of time and money
that you ever will in this hobby."
Me: "Yeah."
Mary: "And you've now told me that people can cheat
in radio contests, and that most contesters are aware
of it, or may have even personally witnessed it on the
air or on that computer thing ('computer thing' being
Internet spotting), and there seems to be a taboo on
pointing fingers about it, and yet people are still
willing to invest these crazy amounts of their time,
effort, and money in contesting, knowing full well
that this goes on and that they can, or do, lose
contests because of it?"
Me: "Yeah."
Mary: "And no one referees these events, or is in
charge of making sure all the rules are followed
during the contest, and the rules themselves are vague
and ambiguous enough that interpretation of them
leaves avenues of bad behavior open to people who want
to win at any cost?"
Me: "Yeah."
Mary: "Why would anyone want to participate seriously
in that?"
Me: "Errr...."
Scott Robbins, W4PA
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